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WSJ.com is reporting that GM has decided to discontinue buying ad space on Facebook, worth $10 million of the total $40 million GM spends with Facebook overall. As Joann Mullerreports, this comes at "a very awkward time for Facebook."

The interesting thing about this decision is that $10 million is just two days worth of ad spending for GM. Based on Kantar Media, a WPP owned ad-tracking firm, and reported on WSJ.com, GM spent $1.83 billion on ads in the U.S. alone in 2011, or over $5 million a day on its four brands - Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. So the decision to cut Facebook spending isn't so much about the total dollar amount as it is about looking at every single dollar spent. These types of decisions reflect the new GM mindset that nothing is sacred and every expenditure is under scrutiny all the time. If something isn't working, it gets canned.

While I was at GM headquarters one day in 2008, I spoke with a GM executive as the auto industry was crumbling around us. GM was examining every last bit of spending as bankruptcy loomed. There was a microscope on ad spend and marketing dollars, measuring for effectiveness and benefit, in some ways more closely than they had in my contact's 25 years there. They decided certain sponsorships were sacred - NASCAR, Major League Baseball - but others were eventually discontinued such as some college sports because the return on investment wasn't clear. They could track the requests for product information they gathered at NASCAR events all the way from the first contact right through to a purchase - the sales funnel - and they were pleased with the results, so NASCAR stayed. Buick broke ties with Tiger Woods in 2008 - before the scandal - because the marketing budget wasn't providing a direct, traceable return.

In its examination and review of its ad effectiveness and spend with Facebook, the darling of social media and soon NASDAQ, GM is exercising discipline and stressing internal controls over a pack mentality, which bodes well for its future. There is a long and well documented history of GM making products and decisions that followed rather than led the auto industry, but the culture within GM is now one of leadership and accountability, which means tough and sometimes controversial decisions are being made.

As the auto market recovers, I'm asked many times if GM is returning to bad habits - if incentives will return, if GM will start making "gas guzzling SUV's" again - despite the continued low incentive rates and the thirty models offered by GM that get over 30 MPG. Given the pending Facebook IPO, the timing of this announcement is interesting and awkward, but more ethical in my mind. If GM had made the announcement after the IPO, it could be construed that GM was in collusion with Facebook to withhold negative news before the IPO. Now, investors can decide for themselves if GM is on an island, or setting a trend.